1. Field of Invention
The present invention generally relates to accessory devices for mobile devices and specifically to accessory devices used to provide internet communication along with other accessory functionality.
2. Prior Art U.S. Patent
Mobile devices are engineered for specific functionality based on market segments they are targeted towards. A mobile device can be one of personal digital assistant, a mobile phone or a personal music player. Users of these devices may require enhanced communication functionality that is not already provided in the mobile device of interest.
For example, a user may have a personal digital assistant that may not provide cellular connectivity. Hence the user may desire to add cellular connectivity. This may be provided by an external accessory device which may be physically or wirelessly connected to the mobile device.
Most accessory devices provide dedicated functionality such as a connection to cellular data network, or provide a cellular call access. To use services of such accessory devices, a corresponding device driver needs to be loaded into the mobile device so that appropriate protocol to access accessory functionality may be exercised.
But this can be a big limitation as a number of mobile devices are closed devices and new device drivers cannot be loaded into such devices. Closed devices are those that do not allow new software programs to be installed without appropriate agreements with device manufacturers. Sometimes closed devices do not have the ability to provide extension services, since the bill of materials may be optimized to provide fixed functionality, hence addition of new device drivers may not be possible.
Hence there is a need for a method that enables using accessory devices without the need for loading native code or device drivers into a mobile device.
This is solved by some prior art systems that suggest using an embedded web server in accessory devices. A mobile device that has an embedded web browser may use the web browser to connect to the accessory using standard hyper text transmission protocol (HTTP) to receive hyper text markup language (HTML) pages to get access to the functionality provided by the accessory.
This method works provided the accessory device provides only one function and does not have to provide access to a network that may also be providing HTML pages at the same time, hence resulting in a conflict.
Such a case arises when an accessory device may act as a gateway to an external network providing HTML pages, and simultaneously providing HTML pages to represent accessory functionality.
In particular, if an accessory device provides access to a cellular data network that may be used for fetching HTML pages from the world wide web or the internet, and also provides functions to establish circuit switched calls, then when a user is using the cellular data network connection to receive HTML pages from the internet, and receives a call using the call function of the accessory device at the same time, there will be a conflict between HTML pages received from the internet and those that are generated internally at the accessory device to represent the call functionality.
Such a conflict may arise for any communication accessory that provides access to the internet that provides HTML pages, and also provides HTML pages to represent accessory functionality.
Accessory devices that provide internet access along with other functionality are of great importance now, since the number of applications that are hosted at a remote site in the internet has increased exponentially and all such applications may benefit from the additional accessory functionality and vice versa.
Further examples of such accessory devices that fit into this category are accessories that provide internet connectivity along with one of the functionalities including a global position system (GPS) receiver, a camera, and a medical device.
A user may want to add a camera as an accessory to a mobile device, and also interoperate the image generated by the camera into a social networking site. This is possible only if the accessory device provided both the networking functionality and the camera functionality so that the network stream data can be enhanced with the image generated.
Similarly, a user may want to add GPS co-ordinates to maps obtained from the internet in a mobile device. This could be tried by using a stand alone GPS accessory device. If the mobile device supported a separate networking interface, then it may obtain the maps from an internet site directly, and then obtain the GPS co-ordinates from the stand alone GPS accessory. But the data received from internet will be in a stream that is independent of data received from stand alone GPS accessory, with no way to correlate the two data streams without custom code in the mobile device and using only a browser to access accessory functionality
This can be solved only by having a GPS accessory device that also supports networking function, enabling the two data streams to be combined at the accessory and then routed into the mobile device to provide a integrated accessory functionality that enhances internet data with accessory functionality and vice versa.
Similarly, if a medical website needs updates from a patient medical device monitor periodically, and the user is using a closed mobile device that supports a web browser, it is imperative that the medical device accessory support networking function that enables combining data from the accessory into the network stream sent to a web site. Otherwise a closed mobile device may not be usable as data from medical device will not interoperate with data from internet. This is because cross site scripting is usually not allowed in any mobile device web browser.
Hence it can be seen that there is a need for a method that provides accessory devices to mobile devices that can interoperate with data from internet to support both closed and open mobile devices that support a browser and networking interface.
Currently there are no known prior art methods that offer a solution to this problem.
Following paragraphs in current section describe relevant prior arts in this field.
Prior art US Doc 20080200208 proposes adding a accessory device to a mobile device that already has a wide area networking interface with a new wide area networking interface, either with physical connection or wirelessly. But this method uses pre-established protocols across the mobile device and the accessory. Thus this method mandates loading native device driver code into the mobile device, hence not addressing the needs of users who want to add a mobile device accessory to a closed mobile device.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 6,865,732 suggests using a customized embedded web server with small foot print devices. This addresses a need for enabling web servers into devices that have highly optimized bill of materials. But this does not address the need of an accessory device to interoperate with data from the internet.
Prior art US Doc 20090099668 provides a embedded web server to in building equipment so that building equipment data can be seen in a web server, eliminating the need for a custom user interface in host devices. Although this method proposes using an embedded web server in building equipment, this does not address the need where data from building equipment needs to interoperate with data from the internet.
Prior art US Doc 20080091175 also provides a embedded web server to access medical device functionality using HTML web pages, hence offering access to medical device functionality as an independent data stream. But this does not address the need where data from medical equipment needs to interoperate with data from the internet.
As can be seen from above, all known prior arts suffer from some limitations in offering a solution to address the need for an accessory device that can enhance internet content without loading new device drivers into the mobile device.
3. Objects and Advantages
Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:                a) to provide an accessory to a mobile device, that can interoperate with content from internet without loading native device drivers into the mobile device;        b) to provide an accessory to a mobile device, that enhances applications programmed using HTML and are deployed in the internet; and        c) to provide an accessory to a closed or open mobile device with additional functionality that can interoperate with contents of internet.        